This invention related to secure handling of document data with respect to a document-handling job which is going to be performed by and with respect to a device, such as a so-called multi-function peripheral (MFP) device. In particular, it relates to a system and to a methodology whereby access to document data during a document-handling job, and after completion of that job, is effectively closed-off to the outside world, as via a network or telephone line connection, and whereby all document data which may have been stored in memory structure in the device is completely destroyed/removed at the end of the job, and before there is any restoration of connectivity of the device to the outside world.
For the purpose of illustration herein, a preferred embodiment and manner of practicing the invention are described in relation to an MFP device, though it should be clearly recognized that the features of the invention may be employed with other specific types of equipment capable of carrying out one or more of the functions typically offered by an MFP device.
When printing, network scanning, copying or faxing a confidential document, it is desirable to leave no trace of the document behind. For example, employee performance evaluations, grievances, and sensitive attorney-client privileged documents typically handled by human resources and legal departments in corporations may create a liability for a corporation if these documents are left behind on a copier, or in the copier's memory, or can be remotely accessed surreptitiously during a time that a document-handling job is being performed in conjunction with such material.
By contribution of the system and methodology of the present invention, and according to a preferred manner of implementing the invention, at the site of a device, such as an MFP device, a user of that device with respect to document handling is presented with an option to elect to work with that document in a secure operating (document-handling) mode. Such a selection can be performed, for example, by pressing a user-interface button on the outside surface of the device, or by clicking on or otherwise accessing a virtual, user-interface operating button presented on the screen of the device. Selection of a secure operating mode causes a disconnection to take place between the MFP device and the outside world with respect to most physical connections and communications that may exist with a network and/or with a telephone line. This disconnection, referred to herein as a step involving preemptive narrowing of the prospective scope of access, is done in such a fashion that no unauthorized access can be gained to document data, but that if some communications are necessary over a network or a telephone line as a direct requirement, say, of a particular printing job, related features of such a network and line are allowed to remain accessible to the user. Such a disconnection also is not necessarily one which blocks all kinds of network communications, for example, relatively low-level communications such as Ping communications.
Implementation of a secure operating mode during a print job also prevents any document data from being stored on a hard-drive device which may form part of the memory structure of such an MFP device. Random access memory which may capture and store document data during performance of a document-handling job is erased on completion of a job, and before there is any restoration of normal connectivity to a network, a phone line, etc.
The various features and performance advantages that are offered by the present invention will become more fully apparent as the description which now follows is read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.